Callous conmen led by a teenage boy tricked dozens of pensioners into handing over their life savings by pretending to be police officers.

A total of 91 people were targeted in the telephone scam masterminded by Saif Musa who was just 18 at the time and had no previous convictions.

In each case victims were contacted by a man claiming their accounts had been accessed by fraudsters.

They were then put on the line to another fraudster who claimed to be working for their bank, and asked for their pin number. Victims were then told police needed their cards as evidence, and told to hand them over to a courier who would collect them.

Once the courier had delivered the cards back to members of the gang, they would be used in ‘24 hour’ shopping sprees at the Arndale Centre, the Trafford Centre, and in betting shops.

Now Musa and six other members of the gang have been sentenced at Manchester Crown Court after each pleading guilty to fraud charges.

Read More

Fortunately their victims have each been reimbursed by their banks. The fraud was unravelled by detectives who posed as couriers and caught members of the gang when they went to collect the cards.

In the year it operated - between June 2013 and June 2014 - the gang were successful in stealing £66,000 from 23 people.

But with 91 people targeted, 53 of whom were persuaded to hand over their cards, the scam had the potential to steal over £600,000, Judge Patrick Field QC said in his sentencing remarks.

In a statement, one of the victims, 76, described how she felt ‘dreadful’ when she found out she had been conned of £4,000.

“I think the people who did this to me are horrible, dreadful selfish and despicable”, she said. Another victim, 82, said: “I don’t understand how people could this this to old people.”

In some cases, when contacted by investigating police, victims rang 999 afterwards because they did not believe the officers were genuine, meaning more officers had to be deployed to reassure them.

Manchester Crown Court

Speaking as Musa and his co-conspirators were sent down, officer in the case Sgt Andrew Butcher said: “The effect the crime has had in many cases is to destroy or damage the victim’s ability to have trust and confidence in police officers, and no doubt it will also effect their trust in bank employees.”

Sentencing, Judge Patrick Field QC described the conspiracy as a ‘sophisticated and well-planned scheme, the aim of which was to prey on the elderly and the vulnerable.”

“The victims were deliberately identified because of their potential vulnerability”, the judge added.

“The plan started with a call from a bogus police officer to the intended victim to tell them their bank card was being used fraudulently - with malignant irony, so as to cause utter disgust, because plainly it was the attention to obtain the bank card from the victim for precisely that purpose.”

Read More

Ringleader Saif Musa continued with the fraud despite being arrested three times by investigating police. Musa, now 21, of Stonepail Close, Gatley, has now been jailed for 45 months.

Benjamin Onalaja, 26, of Allan Roberts Close, Blackley, was involved in the bogus police officer scam at the same time as running an £82,000 hi-tech ‘sim-splitting’ bank fraud. He has been jailed for 22 months.

Adrees Munir, 39, of Birch Hall Lane, Longsight, who used one of the cards in a ‘24 hour spending spree’ in which he tried to make £20,000 of transactions, has been jailed for 28 months, after also admitting breaching a suspended sentence for money laundering he was subject to at the time.

Manchester Crown Court

Shiabul Hoque, 22, of Holmfirth Street, Longsight, was involved in organising the plot but dropped out a couple of months after it started. He was given a two-year suspended sentence, with 250 hour unpaid work.

Aminoor Rahman took part for four months an was given a nine-month suspended sentence, with 180 hours unpaid work.

Amar Sadat, 45, of Victoria Terrace, Longsight, made a £1000 withdrawal from an elderly woman’s account using a stolen card in a branch of David Pluck bookmakers. He was given a 12 month community order.

And Abiodun Oduinrin, 45, of Ackworth Drive, Baguley, who was linked to a stolen card transaction made in a Post Office, was given a six-month suspended sentence, with 180 hours unpaid work.